Michael Pollan Quotes

I don't think the problem is telling people you're on a diet. The problem is eating ice cream for breakfast.

A great destiny needs a generous diet.... What can be expected of a people that live on macaroni!

If people thought about food more like how we think about the environment, a lot of people would be eating differently and the whole system would look a lot different.

When the bread basket comes to the table and I have a bite, people are like, "Oh, you eat bread?" I say, "Oh, my God, of course I eat bread. I'm human."

What an extraordinary achievement for a civilization: to have developed the one diet that reliably makes its people sick!

I believe in eating. I think women especially have this fear of eating, and I think there is a whole euphoric plane you can rise to when you have a good meal. You sit down and with every bite you honestly just say thank you.

Music for me is something I prefer to keep away form the whole business part of my life. I feel like everything I do, in a way, has some sort of business around it. So with my music I can have my privacy. If people don't have to pay for it then I think they can be a little more open to new ideas.

I do think that one needs to have respect for people who are older. And I really do love the idea that one can respect generations.

i dunno," i said, "but i have an idea that people who don't think too much tend to look younger longer

It's the disease of thinking that a having a great idea is really 90% of the work. And if you just tell people, 'here's this great idea,' then of course they can go off and make it happen. The problem with that is that there's a tremendous amount of craftsmanship between a having a great idea and having a great product.

Succesful people are all dreamers. A dream becomes an idea and then something concrete. I think it all starts with a dream.

Throughout history, people with new ideas—who think differently and try to change things—have always been called troublemakers.

I'm trying, now that I am in my dotage, to use a lot less sugar and my husband and I really try to keep close to a minimum of fat; chicken, fish, loads of salads and legumes. We both love all of those. To be honest, nothing that is in our diet is that original. We eat seafood but we do not eat shellfish. On the other hand, if my body says to me, "eat meat" I do. I listen to my body, I think that's important.

I usually work in a direction until I know how to do it, then I stop, At the time that I am bored or understand - I use those words interchangeably - another appetite has formed.

I don't think all of my ideas are good. It's almost easier when people are critical of you because it helps with the quality control.

I think people have good ideas on this. Clearly, we need to secure the border. Coming here legally needs to be a lot easier than coming here illegally.

I think most people are more susceptible to prejudice than to reason. And the parrots of talk radio are just sending out the same stuff. When I look at my e-mails, I see the same Limbaugh rhetoric; apparently, people don't have any ideas of their own. And there's just this drumroll of anti-progressive thought.

The idea of a commonwealth relationship is alien to most people but I think that's true generally.

A new study found that Americans are exercising more than ever but still not losing much weight. Not good in fact, it's all I could think about on my jog to Dunkin' Donuts.

The image foreigners have of French cuisine is fattening and very fancy food. But it's not true - French food isn't just rich. The word "healthy" doesn't exist in French. We have many, many words, but not that one. To me, healthy means paying close attention to feeding people.

I love the idea that more people would read short fiction. I think it's such a humanizing form. It softens the boundaries between people.

I don't think the idea of requiring these to be only sold to people who have already own the bonds, in other words, this naked position that the Germans have recently put into their financial regulation and has been discussed here. I don't think that makes any sense.

There are no bad foods, only bad food habits.

The idea that addiction is somehow a psychological illness is, I think, totally ridiculous. It's as psychological as malaria. It's a matter of exposure. People, generally speaking, will take any intoxicant or any drug that gives them a pleasant effect if it is available to them.